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Quartz Rock of the Lickey Hilly &c, 
to that formation - y e. g. the presence of pebbles of lias and red chalk 
in the quartzose gravel near Shipston, shews it to be certainly of 
more recent origin than both these strata. 
It appears certain, that the state of roundness which the quartzose 
pebbles have attained, has resulted from the friction they underwent 
before their first lodgement in the red sandstone ; and if we had not 
decisive proof of this fact from the state in which we find them 
there imbedded, we should have difficulty in referring their rounded 
condition simply to the friction they have undergone by the act of 
transport from the Lickey or Caer Caradoc to the plains of Warwick- 
shire, or even to Oxford. For it should seem the waters of the 
last deluge were of too short duration, or too tranquil, to produce 
on the fragments of rocks which were torn down and drifted by 
them, that greatest possible degree of roundness which is so universal 
in the quartzose pebbles we have been considering. Indeed in- 
stances are rare, where fragments even of soft rocks, which have 
undergone no further attrition than that of the last diluvian waters, 
have received that total and extreme degree of roundness which 
is found in the quartzose pebbles we are considering, and which is 
similar to what we now see produced by the long continued action 
of violently agitated water on fragments exposed to the waves on 
the sea shore. This fact is a strong proof of the short duration of 
the last deluge, and may be illustrated by the state of the angular 
portions of gravel on the plain of Oxford,* or in Hyde Park. 
The same observations which have been made on the quartzose 
pebbles of the new red sandstone formation in Warwickshire, may 
be applied to the pebble beds of the plastic clay formation above the 
* See Dr. Kidd’s account and reasoning on the Gravel of the plains of Oxford, in the 
preface to his Mineralogy. 
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